185 - The Misunderstood Check-Up
Kei's gaze fell upon the many traits on his personal interface.
The opportunity to convert a trait to red-tier was hard to come by. It was somewhat wasteful to convert ordinary traits; his goal was naturally to focus on conceptual traits, fate-related traits, or those with special effects.
[Heavenly Divine Play], [Fate Weaver] and [Granny's Stick], as well as [Fragile Yet Tenacious], all fell into this category.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, upgrading [Fragile but Hard to Kill] to red would yield the most value. Removing the negative effects of encountering powerful enemies and life-threatening crises, from the perspective of increasing odds of breaking through in battle and surviving, this was undoubtedly a protagonist-tier destiny.
But what if the upgraded version didn't align with his expectations and, instead of becoming a protagonist's destiny, it turned into a villain's destiny?
In that case, would this trait be activated or not?
He pondered for a moment and decided to exclude [Fragile Yet Tenacious] for now.
This thing was too risky. He would consider it again if the opportunity arose later.
Among the remaining traits, [Granny's Stick] had a decent effect, but after upgrading, it was likely to just boost its additional effects.
Currently, with [Infinite Armory Domain], he wasn't lacking in attack power, so this could wait.
As for [Heavenly Divine Play], its effect was already sufficient for now.
According to his guess, if upgraded, it would probably just let him control stronger opponents and increase the adjustment range in battles, which wasn't that meaningful for him.
System, use the conversion card on [Fate Weaver].
Ever since he got this trait, he had clearly felt his luck improving. One moment he was thinking about slowly taking control from the roots, and the next, Danzō delivered his own head and selflessly sacrificed himself.
Same with Black Zetsu.
He hadn't even thought about finding that schemer hiding in the shadows anytime soon.
Yet when he went to the frontlines and KO'd Rasa, his strength surged—and Black Zetsu sweetly showed up, offering help eagerly.
And along with that, control of Kiri was practically handed over to Hikari.
If he took this luck to a casino… Tsunade would cry on the spot.
---
[Obtained:
- Destiny Chronometer (Red)]
[Destiny Chronometer (Red):
Observe the life and fate paths of humans, spirits, and monsters; see karma, merit, disasters, blessings, lifespan, and fortune. Has a chance to foresee one's own disasters or blessings in advance. Can actively interfere with and change others' destinies, and absorb large amounts of free fate energy when others' destinies undergo drastic changes, boosting one's own fortune. Within 100 meters, can observe others' karma, merit, fortune, lifespan, and wealth, and check detailed values using the Destiny Chronometer.]
---
As the system prompt sounded, Kei felt a brief flash before his eyes and a peculiar, mild dizziness. As he processed the massive amount of information being fed into his brain by the system, he felt completely numb!
This fate-type trait—its effects were honestly absurd!
After slowly absorbing the information, he looked up at Sēramu and Sāra, standing near the stone chamber's door.
Under the power of [Destiny Chronometer], several highly unique lines appeared on their bodies.
He raised his right hand. On his palm, thick purple fortune energy gathered and quickly formed a palm-sized chronometer shaped like a compass.
Sēramu and Sāra's personal information was clearly labeled. Karma roughly represented sin value—both had very little. Merit, basically equivalent to virtue, was extremely high for Sēramu, while much lower for Sāra.
Fortune—both were roughly equal.
Lifespan—Sēramu had 15, Sāra had 10; both were short-lived.
Wealth—each had two values, with the larger number looking impressive, but the number in parentheses was pitifully low.
According to the system's info, this meant they controlled a lot of wealth, but spent none on themselves.
Got some money in hand, and they gave it all to the people of Rōran?
He looked at the mother-daughter pair at the door with a strange expression.
Did no evil, did plenty of good, average fortune, super short lives, and lived barely scraping by.
Was this a queen?
No, this was a walking tragedy!
"D-Do we have a problem?" Sēramu noticed Kei looking at them with a particularly weird expression and cautiously asked.
"What's the average lifespan in your family?" Kei glanced again at the various values on [Destiny Chronometer].
Before long, he would fully integrate all the military forces of the shinobi world. Given that, the chances of Sēramu and her daughter dying in war or due to accidents were extremely low.
In this situation, the short lifespan was likely due to hereditary disease or something similar.
"…Perhaps it's because we are unable to fully communicate with the Ryūmyaku. For hundreds of years, very few Queens of Rōran have lived past forty," Sēramu said with a hint of helplessness on her delicate face.
She gently patted Sāra's hand as the girl suddenly gripped her tightly, as if to comfort her.
"I'll check your bodies later." Kei nodded slightly, not overly concerned.
The Ryūmyaku's power was immense and had certain negative effects. People who lacked strong power themselves would inevitably pay a steep price for trying to control it.
"D-Do you really have to check both of us?"
Sēramu's cheeks flushed faintly red. Though she knew Kei meant well, still… come on!
"Ahem, it's just a chakra-based scan. No need to do anything elaborate."
In Kei's mind, the image of a landlord from a comedy film surfaced involuntarily. The "check-up" he meant and what Sēramu thought he meant… might be a bit different?
What an amusing misunderstanding. His moral standards were too high—he didn't even think of taking advantage of the situation.
"A-Alright. Then we'll be in your care…" Sēramu's face instantly turned crimson, almost as if it could bleed, and even her neck was tinged pink.
In a fluster, she covered Sāra's eyes and took deep breaths repeatedly.
So embarrassing!
She, the Queen of Rōran, why did she always think of these weird things?
She wanted to dig a hole and disappear!
"It's fine. Just wait a bit longer, I have something else to take care of." Kei knew Sēramu needed some time to calm down.
He turned his back to them and sat cross-legged in front of the Ryūmyaku's control switch.
Closing his eyes, he used the power of [Multiversal Voyager], borrowing the Ryūmyaku's energy to sense portals to other worlds.
Buzz—
A surge of energy, far more terrifying than when he previously crossed dimensions, burst out.
Sēramu and Sāra were pinned tightly to the stone chamber door behind them by the sudden energy outburst, unable to move.
Beneath the stone chamber, the dense Ryūmyaku energy—completely liquefied—rose like a dragon drawing water, madly surging into Kei's body, then rapidly consumed by [Multiversal Voyager].
Five minutes… ten minutes… twenty minutes… More than an hour passed. Faintly, he sensed two unique 'rifts', one large and one small, in his perception.
These… are portals to other worlds? Kei reacted quickly, immediately using the power of [Multiversal Voyager] to mark both portals.
The smaller portal was successfully marked.
It didn't require much energy, and he could now travel through it to a specific point in another world using [Multiversal Voyager].
The larger portal, however, barely retained any mark the first time.
A higher power-level world? He immediately understood. Gathering more Ryūmyaku energy, he continued sending out marking signals.
After several more minutes of effort, he finally left behind a stable and clear mark, officially recording and saving this portal!
With a satisfied smile, he exited his dimensional sensing and tracking mode.
The chaotic energy in the stone chamber slowly calmed down.
Seeing the energy, previously just ten meters below ground level, now dropped to over fifty meters, and recalling how two dimension jumps hadn't consumed this much, he clicked his tongue in amazement.
Thankfully, the Ryūmyaku was connected to the entire planet, allowing the energy to recover slowly.
Otherwise, how could it withstand him burning through it like this.